The invention concerns headgear, particularly hats and helmets, having manipulatable projections for amusement and promotional endeavors.
Headgear, including hats, caps, helmets, headbands and the like, provide a natural vehicle for striking decorative displays having aesthetic or amusing characteristics. By virtue of its position atop the head of a person, unusual or flamboyant headgear will draw attention to the wearer and, thus, provide simple gratification or enable the person to draw the viewer""s attention, once captured by the headgear, to a more serious message, for example, for promotional ends such as advertising.
The invention concerns headgear, preferably in the form of a hat, cap or helmet, for wearing on a head of a person. The headgear comprises a structure adapted for support upon the head and an elongated projection having a first end attached to the structure and a free end extending outwardly away therefrom. The projection has a flexible, compliant portion arranged between the ends allowing the projection to be manually manipulatable into a desired shape. The flexible, compliant portion maintains the desired shape until it is manually manipulated into another desired shape.
Preferably, the flexible, compliant portion extends substantially over the entire length of the projection. Preferably, the flexible, compliant portion of each projection comprises a tube having a sidewall comprising a plurality of annuli arranged coaxially face to face adjacent one another. Each annulus has an inner circumference attached to an inner circumference of an adjacent annulus and an outer circumference attached to an outer circumference of another adjacent annulus so as to form, lengthwise along the tube, a series of peaks and valleys defined by the outer circumferences and the inner circumferences respectively. Each annulus has a frusto-conical shape and a width different from an adjacent annulus such that an annulus having a relatively greater width is positioned adjacent to an annulus having a relatively smaller width. The width is defined as the difference between the outer and inner diameters of an annulus. Each annulus is stabily positionable in a first position in contact with an adjacent annulus and a second position angularly displaced away from an adjacent annulus, the first and second positions allowing the tube to be bent, curved, expanded and compressed in a desired configuration and maintain the configuration due to the stability of the first and the second positions of the annuli.
Preferably, the headgear has a plurality of the projections, each projection having a first end attached either the crown or the brim of the headgear. In a preferred embodiment, the free end of one of the projections has a coupling mounted thereon, and the free end of another of the projections has a complementary coupling mounted thereon. The complementary coupling is adapted to engage the coupling on the one projection and thereby form a substantially continuous loop projecting outwardly from the helmet.